Global sales of electric cars are more than four years behind expectations, Carlos Ghosn of Renault-Nissan said, as he admitted for the first time that the industry leader would miss its targets for the new generation of vehicle. Mr Ghosn, speaking in an interview with the Financial Times, conceded that the market is failing to live up to his expectations. As chief executive of both Renault and Nissan, Mr Ghosn has ploughed billions of dollars into electric vehicles and become their most outspoken cheerleader.
Renault and Nissan, which operate in a global alliance, had previously said they would sell 1.5m electric cars between them by the end of 2016. “We will not be there,” Mr Ghosn said. “At the speed right now, I’m seeing it more four or five years later.” Despite much fanfare, heavy investment and pressure from governments on carmakers to promote low-emission vehicles, electric cars have so far proved costly to build, tough to sell and crippled by limited mileage and a lack of charging infrastructure in key markets – so-called “range anxiety”. Renault and Nissan have together sold more than 120,000 electric cars over the past five years, more than any other manufacturer. Nissan’s Leaf model is the world’s best-selling electric car, with about 85,000 sales so far. But a failure to create charging and support infrastructure for the vehicles has crippled early sales and forced the company to pare back its expectations. “We have to admit, it is slower than we thought. But it is slower for the reason that we thought infrastructure building would be faster. It is not,” Mr Ghosn said.
In markets such as Norway or the state of California in the US, healthy government incentives for buyers and a widespread network of charging points has spurred demand for electric vehicles. I don’t think the main issue today is the cost of the car. The main issue is infrastructure. I would not buy a gasoline car if there were no gasoline stations - Carlos Ghosn, chief executive of Renault and Nissan While rivals General Motors, Honda and Mitsubishi have all developed electric cars, and smaller companies such as Tesla Motors have had some success with battery-only models, Renault-Nissan’s commitment has made it a trailblazer within the industry. But analysts say the decision of Volkswagen and BMW, which unveiled its first electric model this autumn, to enter the developing market could accelerate sales growth. “Today there is nobody, but they are coming,” said Mr Ghosn of competition in the electric car market. “Some of our German competitors have announced that they are coming. They will be our main competitors. And that’s about it. Others have announced one car here, one car there.” The Franco-Japanese alliance announced an agreement with Mitsubishi last week that will see the three companies work together on a small electric car to be sold globally, which is expected to further reduce costs of the technology.